‘Coca’ cake for UN chief: Bolivia gives Ban a birthday treat

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blows the candles on a cake during a celebration for his 70th birthday at an event organized by Bolivia's President Evo Morales in El Torno, near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, June 13, 2014. (Reuters/David Mercado) / Reuters

Wearing a straw hat and a garland of flowers, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon blew out 70 candles on probably the most unusual cake he’s ever received for his birthday – served with coca leaves and presented to him by Bolivia on the eve of a G77 leaders’ summit.

Schoolchildren sang
‘Happy Birthday’ to the UN chief in three languages - English,
Spanish and Ayoreo (a native dialect) while giving him a cake in
the village of El Torno,reportsthe Bolivian Agency ABI.

"The Bolivian people will never forget your visit," the
president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, a former coca farmer himself
who considers coca chewing to be part of Bolivia's heritage, told
Ban in front of hundreds of people. Morales long time defended
the legal use of coca for tea, sweets and medicines.

Ban was also presented a traditional Bolivian jacket and took
part in a folk dance with local people from the Santa Rita
community in Bolivia's eastern Concepcion region.

"Thank you for my birthday celebration. Thank you for your
gifts, I will take them to New York to remember you
forever," Ban said.

The UN chief, however, didn’t taste the ‘torta de coca’
in public.

"The Bolivian people have a big, broad heart ... and great
wisdom. You have lived for thousands of years in harmony with
nature," said Ban

Ban was traveling to Bolivian city of Santa Cruz for a G77
leaders’ summit to discuss the measures for reducing poverty.

The coca leaf is the base material for cocaine. However, coca
chewing and coca tea is drunk daily by millions of people in the
Andes as well as considered sacred within indigenous cultures.

UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs banned coca leaf except
for medical or scientific purposes in 1961, listing coca leaf
together with cocaine and heroin as prohibited drugs. In 2012
Bolivia withdrew from convention to protest the criminalization
the ban on chewing coca leaves.

The Andean tradition of chewing coca leaves as a mild stimulant
has been accepted by the UN since 2013. Of the 61 countries
needed to veto the initiative only 15 turned out led by the US
and UK.

In 2009, the UN Office of Drug Control estimated that 30,900
hectares of coca were planted in Bolivia, making it the
third-largest producer of coca after Colombia and Peru.